Department of Economics, Bentley University, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), USA.
Department of Economics, Lehigh University, 621 Taylor Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA.
J Health Econ. 2022 Jul;84:102644. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102644. Epub 2022 May 27.
The recent lead-in-water crisis in Newark has renewed concerns about the crisis being a widespread problem in the nation. Using data on the exact home addresses of pregnant women residing in the city combined with information on the spatial boundary separating areas within the city serviced by two water treatment plants, we exploit an exogenous change in water chemistry that resulted in lead leaching into the tap water of one plant's service area, but not the other's, to identify a causal effect of prenatal lead exposure on fetal health. We find robust evidence of adverse health impacts, which has important policy implications in light of the substantial number of lead water pipes that remain in use as part of our aging infrastructure and the cost-benefit calculus of lead abatement interventions.
纽瓦克最近的自来水中铅问题再次引发了人们对全国范围内这一危机普遍存在的担忧。我们利用居住在该市的孕妇的确切家庭住址数据，并结合有关将城市划分为两个水处理厂服务区域的信息，利用导致一个水处理厂服务区域的自来水中铅浸出而另一个区域没有的水化学成分的外生变化，来确定产前铅暴露对胎儿健康的因果影响。我们发现了确凿的健康影响证据，鉴于我们老化的基础设施中仍有大量铅水管在使用，以及铅减排干预措施的成本效益计算，这一证据具有重要的政策意义。
